Belzac DeMortis
Belzac DeMortis ''(Born August 5th, 13 B.W)'' is an undead mercenary and the Captain of the Black Ruin, a pirate vessel notorious for both its ability to appear from seemingly nowhere and its treatment of captured prisoners. Originally a Captain within the Alterac Navy during the Second War, Belzac was captured and imprisoned by the Alliance before escaping during the fall of Lordaeron and fleeing south into lands where he was a relative unknown. Becoming a mercenary taking the jobs few would consider, he served in multiple alliance campaigns until he took a fateful job to assassinate a Forsaken commander in Silverpine Forest. Slain due to botched intelligence, he was reanimated as one of the Forsaken and has served the Dark Lady in an on and off basis ever since. Appearance Belzac DeMortis is at first glance, nothing more than the average Forsaken. That is until he gets closer. Upon closer inspection, it is revealed that he is not as rotten as other undead in the Dark Lady's army, and has retained much of his looks, although it is quite clear that he is undead. He has a full head of black hair, he stands straight and tall and he has no protruding or revealed bones sticking through his somewhat weathered, pallid skin. He speaks with an Alteraci accent, his body betraying his mind when it comes to disclosing his place of birth, but he does not seem to show any shame when it is brought up in conversation. He is armed to the teeth as a pirate should be, and can be seen carrying several weapons on his person at all times. The first two weapons are the most obvious, both curved blades which are sheathed and attached to his weapon belt when not being used. Additionally, he carries at least three other weapons which are easily visible. Two single-shot pistols, a larger more cumbersome scattergun and a third weapon which at first glance appears to be a standard dagger, but is on closer inspection a specialized device. Forged with a thicker blade made out of hardened elementium, with thick grooves on the opposite end of the blade instead of a flat edge. This 'Swordbreaker Dagger' is used by Belzac to snap more flimsy blades (such as rapiers) or disarm an opponent if the blade cannot be snapped by twisting the sword out of the hand. Unknown to almost all, Belzac has a fourth blade which is kept up his sleeve. In a pinch, and with a flick of his wrist, Belzac can drop the blade into his hand and then stab or cut an opponent with it. Personality Belzac is a cruel individual who is known for making daring plays and gambles, given that he no longer fears death like he used to. Known for keelhauling his victims and leaving them strung up as warnings for those who sail the waters he patrols, he often shows no remorse or guilt for his actions. He is a heavy drinker, more so because he is now undead and needs to drink more to feel the same buzz as he did when he was still among the living, and despite his undead state he is still quite the carouser, although the ladies are far less interested in him in his current form for obvious reasons, not that it bothers him. Faith Belzac was originally a follower of the Holy Light and even continued to pray when he was imprisoned for treason in Lordaeron City. His recent reanimation and vulnerability toward the light's blessings, however, has forced him to shed that faith, and so far he has not picked up another to replace it. History Early Years and Education Belzac DeMortis was born in the year 13 B.W (Before the First War) to Edric and Morgana DeMortis. Born into nobility as a member of the powerful and influential House DeMortis. While he was not the eldest child of the family, he was none the less raised without needing to perform any sort of manual labor, was given the finest education that the noble house could afford and he had his needs seen to by those who served his family. From an early age, his life was a complex one, and there was much that Belzac had to learn in order to survive in the world of Alterac nobility. As the circles of intrigue expanded around him, Belzac learned the finer arts of subtlety and deception, but also the world of assassination and when such actions would be necessary in order to gain an advantage over an opponent. Unlike other members of his family who preferred to hire contractors to do their dirty work for them, Belzac was more of a hands-on member of the family, and nothing showed that more when he infiltrated the estate of House Erodin, a political rival, at the age of eighteen. Rather than plant incriminating evidence or use more subtle means to bring down the family, he used a cruel dagger to kill every living being in the house, including the servants and what few guards protected the home, leaving nothing but a bloodbath to be cleaned. The massacre at the house became known as the Erodin Massacre, and it was a mystery that was never solved, partially due to the skill in which House DeMortis erased all records of their involvement with House Erodin. The massacre, however, proved to be a liability for Edric DeMortis and the rest of the family, and so rather than keep Belzac around to potentially cause more violent scandals for the family to clean up, Edric demanded that his son enlist in the Alterac military. Choosing to join the Navy, Belzac travelled to the Lordaeron Naval Academy, the finest naval academy in the north and learned through strict instruction how to sail a ship, perform the duties of a sailor and lead men as a Captain, as those who graduated from the Lordaeron Naval Academy often became naval captains in the naval forces of their family home. His training at the academy lasted for a year before it was forced to end, not due to his own belligerence or because he caused a scandal on the Academy grounds, but because of a new enemy that had emerged from the south after having razed the Kingdom of Stormwind. The Second War, Alterac's Betrayal The Second War proved to be a turning point in Belzac's life for all the wrong reasons. When Alterac declared war against the Horde which was emerging from the south, all men, regardless of experience, were called up to fight against the new threat, that included Belzac, who was placed at the helm of a ship known as the Emerald Waverider and sent out to wage a war on the seas against the Horde, who had built ships of their own at a surprising pace. Initial engagements against the Horde were mixed. Belzac's lack of experience showed, and some battles were lost due to miscalculations, but as the war carried on and Belzac became more accustomed to leadership and tactics, he began to make considerable gains, sinking multiple Horde vessels during sorties on the high sea. It was several months into the war when the order that would change everything came from Alterac high command. The order was simple. Let the Horde pass unassailed, strike at the Alliance. Belzac was initially shocked by the order, as it meant that he was now potentially allied with the very enemies he had been fighting for the past few months. Doubt weighed on his mind as to whether he should follow the orders and he waged a private war within himself as he decided what he would do moving forward and what he would tell the men, many of whom were passionate about slaying the Horde. Ultimately, knowing that he needed to maintain the trust of his men, Belzac assembled his crew and told them the truth, that he had received orders from his superiors commanding that his ship target Alliance vessels. He also told his men that he would not follow those orders completely, that they would instead stand down entirely and not fire a single shot at either Horde or Alliance vessels. This was more for the future of his men more than his own, for if the Alliance won the war against the Horde, he would be hauled into the courts and imprisoned for his compliance with a treasonous order, but if his men did not fire a shot and showed no aggression toward the Alliance, they might be spared although they would be marked for the rest of their lives for their part in the war. Imprisonment and Escape While Belzac knew that the Horde had considerable strength he was not surprised when he heard the news that the Alliance had claimed victory at Blackrock Mountain and less so when he learned that Alterac had fallen after their betrayal had been discovered by the forces that they had supposedly been allies with. The moment he received the news he set sail and upon encountering an Alliance vessel on open seas, surrendered himself, his crew and his ship. Bound in chains, he was brought before the military tribunals in Lordaeron where he told senior military officials all that he knew, that he had received orders from Alterac high command ordering him to fire on Alliance vessels. He also relayed that he refused to follow those orders, at least not entirely, so that his crew could be spared the hangman's noose. At the end of his trial, he was commended for his honesty, his initial service to the Alliance and his refusal to fire on Alliance vessels, however, he was also condemned for his refusal to fight enemies of the Alliance, which resulted in the Horde having naval support where they might have had none if Belzac had done his sworn duty. On insistence from his crew, he was spared the hangman's noose, and instead sentenced to thirty years imprisonment for his crimes against the Alliance. Following his incarceration, the years followed rather quickly. He remained a model prisoner but always looked down on, even by other prisoners, because of his accent, as his Alteraci heritage had branded him a traitor even though he had not raised a finger to the Alliance. The only friend he made was with the jailer, who's uncle had served on Belzac's crew and had been spared from death due to his actions. That friendship would become a great asset several years into his sentence, even if Belzac wasn't fully aware of it. Everything changed for Belzac when the Scourge attacked Lordaeron City during the year 20 A.W (After the First War). Belzac knew that the undead was menacing the countryside due to what his friend the jailer had managed to tell him during their many conversations, but it was the attack on the city itself, led by the fallen prince Arthas Menethil that set the gears in motion for Belzac's release. As the undead rampaged throughout the city, the jailer raced through the prison, opening as many cells as he could. Not because he wanted to genuinely release these men and women, many of whom were hardened criminals, but because he didn't believe that anyone deserved to wait to be butchered by the undead. In Belzac's case, however, the jailer actually did want to release him, as Belzac had proven to be a true friend in the many years that he had been incarcerated within the prison cells. The jailer even showed Belzac a way out of the prison, to what he assumed was relative safety and gave him a weapon to protect himself, but he did not leave the prisons with the former captain, as his duty was to remain behind and defend the capital to the best of his ability. Facing a choice of fleeing or death, Belzac took the opportunity and fled, putting as much distance between himself and Lordaeron City as he could. At an abandoned farm he found a change of clothes which made him look far less suspicious, and shortly after he found a refugee caravan that was headed south toward Stormwind. Life as a Mercenary When he arrived in Stormwind there was a great deal of chaos and confusion, as with the Second War so long ago, the refugees streaming into the region were putting a strain on local resources, and many of the able-bodied refugees were choosing to gain protection by serving in militias and mercenary companies. Belzac was not one of those men and women, at least not yet, years of living in cramped conditions had caused his body to suffer and he would need time to restore it before he would even consider joining up with any mercenary groups. It took several years of training for his body to return to form, and once it did he was quick to make a name for himself as a mercenary who would take any job for the right amount of coin. As the years wore on, the Alliance fought in many campaigns in both familiar and exotic locations and in each of those campaigns there was an abundance of work, but while ordinary mercenary groups were getting the large-scale contracts to deal with enemy units and fortifications, it was Belzac who undertook several of the harder contracts mainly dealing with the assassination of enemy commanders, be they enemies of both factions, or leaders of the Horde military. While these contracts were extremely profitable, they also had a degree of danger which caused other mercenaries, even assassins like Belzac himself, to shy away from them. Belzac however, would not be deterred due to any 'danger' and that was ultimately the cause of his death. Death and Reanimation Belzac's death occurred in the year 30 A.W, shortly after the reign of Grommash Hellscream had come crashing down around him in the siege of Orgrimmar. It was a time of extremely heightened tensions between the factions, as there were elements on both sides that wished for the war between the Alliance and the Horde to continue, despite King Varian and Warchief Vol'jin's agreement of a ceasefire. For Belzac, the ceasefire wasn't important, what was important was the coin, and so he took a job which promised a large amount of coin, but would take him back into the lands of Lordaeron, a region he had not seen since his escape from prison a decade earlier. The job was a simple one, infiltrate the Silverpine Forest where the Forsaken were still fighting resistance groups of Gilneans after their invasion of the once isolated kingdom, find the commander of the Forsaken forces and eliminate him. The chaos that would occur as a result of the commanders' death would give the Gilnean resistance movement some breathing room and a chance to strike back at the enemy. Belzac's target? Deathstalker Commander Belmont. Following the intelligence he was given, Belzac arrived in Silverpine Forest and began his preparations. According to the reports, the Deathstalker Commander always traveled the same route through Silverpine Forest as he moved from the Undercity to the forsaken command center, and more importantly, due to the security of the area, he moved through the region with a relatively light guard, a few Deathstalkers that served as bodyguards, but nothing that an accomplished assassin with a proven track record couldn't dispatch. Sadly for Belzac, the reports of the Deathstalker Commander's movements were incomplete and missed one glaring detail, the Dark Rangers that flanked the Commander to ensure that no feral worgen managed to ambush them from the forests. Belzac, of course, did not realize the mistake until he had committed to the battle. Springing the trap he so carefully prepared which consisted of a well-hidden bear trap and some smoke bombs, he broke free of the brush near the road and went to work with his daggers. The deathstalker bodyguards fell first, dispatched cleanly with well-timed strikes of his blades, but Belmont was another story. He was a seasoned commander and an assassin much like himself, and so the two fought a lengthy battle, neither giving ground. Wounds were suffered from both men, but it appeared that Belzac would claim his victory. Until two arrows from the dark rangers who had been hiding in the forests found their mark in his chest. Belzac collapsed to the ground, coughing blood and wheezing from the pain as the Belmont stood over his form, he even congratulated him for fighting so well, before thrusting a dagger into his chest. As Belzac died he heard the commander order the Dark Rangers to take him to Deathknell, but all consciousness and life faded from him before he found out why. He awoke in Deathknell sometime later. At first, he thought that it had all been a nightmare, that he had not been killed by Belmont and that he was still alive in Silverpine Forest, but those hopes were dashed when he looked down at his form. He had been stripped down to assist in his reanimation, a somewhat surprising turn of events, and his wounds, both where the arrows punctured his chest and where Belmont's dagger had finished him had been stitched together and healed, at least mostly. He was then told by the Forsaken around him exactly what had happened to him. He had been killed, and Deathstalker Commander Belmont, sensing that Belzac could be an asset to the Forsaken, had ordered his body to be taken to Deathknell for reanimation. He was 'alive' again, at least in a sense, and he had two choices. Serve the Dark Lady or leave Forsaken territory, otherwise, he would be killed again, and this time, there would be no reanimation to bring him back. Life as an Undead Weighing up his options, Belzac chose to ally himself with the Dark Lady. It wasn't much of a choice really, the Alliance would never accept him back into their ranks now that he was one of the Forsaken, and he admittedly could have joined the Argent Crusade, but those crusaders would be too busy sticking pikes up their asses to utilize his talents correctly. Before he would even raise a blade in the Dark Lady's name there were things that he had to see to in order to make his unlife more tolerable, and so he left Deathknell and traveled to the Alterac Mountains, to the ancestral home of House DeMortis, which he learned was still standing even after all the years that had passed although it was now home to the Syndicate, rather than any Alteraci nobility. Infiltrating the house was easy. He still retained all his skills despite his death and his body had not yet rotted to the point where he started to smell. He moved through the halls of his former home effortlessly, while killing any Syndicate who got in his way. Eventually, he reached the study where he knew that his father kept a safe filled with his hard earned wealth. It was this wealth that he was after. Better it go to him than some Syndicate rabble, assuming they hadn't broken into the safe already. Sadly for him, when he entered the study he found that indeed the safe had been opened, the contents mostly remained but they were guarded by none other than Victor and Markus DeMortis, Belzac's older brothers who had joined the Syndicate after the fall of Alterac. The family reunion was brief and bloody, Belzac didn't mince words with his brothers, he told them that he was taking the contents of the safe for himself and if they opposed him he would gut them and leave them to bleed out on the floor. Unsurprisingly they resisted and so Belzac quickly turned his blades on his brothers, killing both of them rather quickly before raiding the safe for all that he could carry, which was a considerable amount, with his new strength. He also found, hiding in the back of the safe, his old naval hat, which had been taken from him when he turned himself in after the end of the Second War. Clearly, it had been returned to his family, or his family had taken it forcibly, it didn't matter which. What it did do however was remind Belzac of the good times on the high seas and it gave him a longing to return to the waters. Stashing the hat with the treasure he was taking over the bodies of his dead brothers, he left the estate behind and returned to Forsaken territory for some much-needed preparations. Piracy on the High Seas When Belzac returned to the Undercity with his new wealth, one of the first things he did was enlist the aid of a local enchantress. He paid her a considerable sum, and in turn she cast two spells on his body, one to prevent decay in all forms, preserving his body in its current state, while the other masked his smell, so that should he ever attempt an assassination again, his mark wouldn't smell him from a mile away. He also inquired about his old ship, the Emerald Waverider. He learned that it had been used sparingly by the Lordaeron Navy after its surrender and that it had been captured by the Forsaken when they took over Lordaeron and her assets in the Tirisfal Glades although it had not been used since, as the Forsaken had their own ships, and did not care for using 'Alliance made trash' as they called it. Belzac, of course, knew better, the Emerald Waverider had served him well in the Second War, and if the Forsaken weren't going to use it, then he would. Purchasing the ship and hiring a crew with his new wealth, he found the Emerald Waverider in a sorry state in one of the docks, kept afloat by a few dedicated ship hands who had looked after the ship before their death to the Scourge, and continued to do so after they Category:Characters Category:Forsaken Category:Undead Category:New Horde Category:Mercenaries Category:Rogues Category:Pirates